Due to recent advances in technology, computer users are now able to enjoy many features that provide an improved user experience, such as playing various media and multimedia content on personal, laptop, or handheld computers, as well as cellular phones and other portable media devices. For example, most computers today are able to play compact discs (CDs) and have an internet connection capable of streaming and downloading audio and video so users can enjoy media while working on their computers. Many computers are also equipped with digital versatile disc (DVD) drives enabling users to watch movies.
Such users are naturally desirous of metadata information identifying the media accessible via their computing device. Data providers are therefore interested in providing a metadata experience that accurately and quickly identifies a selected media item accessed by a user. As such, conventional systems attempt to identify media items in any number of ways, using data tangential to the media item, rather than the media item itself. For example, identification codes associated with media items or groups of media items, metadata associated with the accessed media item, or other previously identified media items stored near the media item of interest, may all be employed in an attempt to identify an accessed media item. These methods are fraught with error, however, because identification is not based upon the media item itself, but rather tangential data associated with the media item. Moreover, because many media items are stored in different formats, conventional systems have had difficulty identifying media stored in an unfamiliar format. In addition, metadata associated with media items is error prone. Much of this metadata is user-entered, and may misidentify the media item or include incorrect, misspelled, or out-of-date information. In addition, the conventional practice of utilizing identifiers associated with a media collection, such as a compact disc (CD), to provide matching may also introduce error through misidentification of similar or incorrectly matching identifiers. Moreover, such systems have difficulty identifying solitary media items not downloaded to a user device as part of an album.
Unfortunately, these issues are not addressed by any conventional system. Conventional techniques provide identification only through tangential data, such as metadata matching or identification number matching. Such conventional techniques provide no assistance for individual media items having no metadata, incorrect metadata, or missing identifiers. Such conventional techniques also fail to perform well where media items are stored in a foreign format. Accordingly, a solution that enables identification of a media item identically in each case, irrespective of the format of the media item or the metadata associated with the media item is desired. There is a need, therefore, for a method or system whereby any media item may be identified based upon the actual content of the media item itself, rather than tangential data associated with the media item. A solution that enables identification of any media item, in any format, with no other identification or metadata is desired.